When trying to remember the correct understanding of this rule, the question you must ask yourself is: "Under my understanding, if I undock my ship, does its
Tactical Console immediately discard?" If yes, then you must find a new interpretation of the rule.
Takket is correct that there
used to be language in the Glossary suggesting that a card must discard as soon as its target went away or became invalid. This language was
intended to make it so Assimilate Counterpart would discard if its target went away... but it led people to believe that Tactical Console immediately discarded when the ship undocked, or that
Staging Ground discarded if Deep Space 9 was commandeered. This language was therefore removed a couple of years ago and replaced with the current language (which Takket quoted correctly).
So, to answer the OP's questions:
WeAreBack wrote:I still struggle with this one: what happens when the thing that made one card a valid target of another changes so that the target is no longer valid?
If the targeting card is played on the targeted card (e.g. Tactical Console): nothing happens.
If the targeting card is
not played on the targeted card (e.g. Assimilate Counterpart): if the targeted card leaves play, the targeting card leaves play. Otherwise, nothing happens. If the targeted card simply becomes an invalid target without leaving play (e.g. a Jean-Luc Picard targeted by Assimilate Counterpart becomes female), nothing happens.
If I play Imperial Intimidation on an I.S.S. Constitution, but then I use a bottle of '45 Dom to replace it with Starship Enterprise, does Imperial intimidation still operate?
This one is easy: Yes. (This answers your subsequent questions in this example as well.)
For example, if I play Mutual Distrust on Major Rakal when she is in mode targeting her Tal Shiar, but then she switches to mode and no longer has the skill, can I still draw an extra card when I report a personnel with, say, Klingon Intelligence?
Mutual Distrust is the single hardest card for this and always has been, so good job on pressing the point to its hardest conclusion. It doesn't target a card, it targets a
skill. Rules broke its collective brain trying to make this card work, so you can imagine the disappointment I personally felt when nobody ever really played with it, but only brought up up to ask really hard rules questions!
My interpretation is that, if the personnel Mutual Distrust is played on loses her Tal Shiar skill (due to Rakal's affiliation switching, or Frame of Mind, or whatever), Mutual Distrust does not discard. It is not targeting a separate card and so the long-term target rule simply does not apply to it.
However, Mutual Distrust stops
functioning until the Intelligence skill is regained, because you can no longer say that a personnel with Klingon Intelligence is a personnel with "different" intelligence. That's not the target rule, that's just Mutual Distrust's own gametext.
There is no official ruling on this, I can already hear JeBuS typing an alternative perspective, and I'll save him the keystrokes my admitting that his rebuttal is plausible, but simply not my view of a close question.
Other examples are much easier:
Assimilate Homeworld bounces to hand if Locutus bounces to hand, but remains in play if
He Will Make An Excellent Drone converts Locutus to a drone.
Assimilate Starship discards if the target ship blows up for some other reason, but remains in play if you commandeer it with
A Fast Ship Would Be Nice.
Rescue Personnel doesn't discard the moment you beam up the target Away Team, but sticks around until you get them home.
And so on for
Build Interplexing Beacon,
Eliminate Starship,
Harness Particle,
Establish Tractor Lock,
Reassimilate Lost Drone, and so on. But Mutual Distrust is a toughie.
Rules Manager | Official Rulings in
blue. All else opinion. |
Rules Archive
"We pledge our loyalty to the Glossary from now until death."
"Then receive this reward from the Glossary. May it keep you strong."
~Iron Prime